Tag: magnificent 7

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Jonah Lomu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmXMX6AXMU

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) has named Jonah Lomu as the seventh and final member of ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’, the HKRFU’s assembly of the top seven players to have played at the Hong Kong Sevens over the past 40 years.

Lomu was inducted into ‘The Magnificent Seven’ last night at the 40 Years of Sevens Gala dinner in Hong Kong along with the announced co-winners of the HKRFU’s Hong Kong Hometown Legend campaign, Rowan Varty and Keith Robertson.

Quite possibly the most famous rugby player in history, Jonah Lomu made his debut appearance in Hong Kong in 1994, giving Hong Kong Sevens fans a privileged opportunity to witness a superstar in the making.

Lomu came to Hong Kong as an unheralded youngster but exited the Sevens on the cusp of stardom. Months later he would be selected as the then youngest-ever All Black at just 19 years and 45 days old, making his debut appearance against France. The following year he cemented his reputation as rugby’s most unstoppable force by scoring seven tries at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.

Lomu would return to the Hong Kong Sevens in 1995 and 1996 to anchor New Zealand to three successive tournament victories and secure himself an abiding place in Hong Kong’s sporting lore.

He also helped New Zealand win the gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and led his country to its first Rugby World Cup Sevens victory at the 2001 world championships in Argentina. He is the third Kiwi named in ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’.

The expert panel of sevens specialists convened by the HKRFU to adjudicate ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’ obviously did their homework. At yesterday’s pre-event press conference ahead of the 2015 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens (27-29 March), Sir Gordon Tietjens, in charge of the New Zealand Sevens team since 1994, was queried about the three best players he has ever coached.

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Jonah Lomu

After little deliberation, Tietjens named Eric Rush, Christian Cullen and Lomu. All three have been named into the Magnificent Seven – making New Zealand the only nation with multiple recipients of this unique honour.

The complete Hong Kong Magnificent Seven are:

Zhang Zhiqiang China
Ben Gollings England
Christian Cullen New Zealand
Eric Rush New Zealand
David Campese Australia
Waisale Serevi Fiji
Jonah Lomu New Zealand

Photos and videos courtesy of their respective owners

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Waisale Serevi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1QWQvN1X1U

Waisale Serevi, perhaps the most influential player in the history of sevens, has been announced as the sixth player inducted into the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union’s ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’.

Widely considered the world’s greatest-ever sevens player, Serevi was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2013 on the sidelines of the Hong Kong Sevens, where he made his international rugby name. He is the first Fijian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and the first of his countrymen inducted into ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’.

Serevi, ‘the little magician’, made his Hong Kong debut in 1989, winning player of the tournament honours on debut, and would return on an astonishing 15 further occasions (1990-2000, 2002 and from 2005-07 as player/coach).

Serevi was a part of five cup-winning teams and reached the final on a further seven occasions, massively contributing to Fiji’s record 14 victories in Hong Kong. He was also instrumental in both of Fiji’s Rugby World Cup Sevens wins in Hong Kong in 1997 and 2005.

Uniquely, he has been named the best and fairest player of the Hong Kong Sevens on three occasions (1989, 1990 and 1998) and was also the player of the tournament at both the 1997 and 2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong.

Serevi spearheaded two periods of remarkably sustained success for Fiji including three consecutive wins from 1990 to 1992 and from 1997 (Rugby World Cup Sevens) to 1999, making Fiji the only nation to have twice accomplished a three-peat in Hong Kong. New Zealand won from 1994 to 1996 and England won from 2002 to 2004.

Serevi also led Fiji to two silver medals at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002 and captured bronze in 2006. In 2005 he was appointed the Fiji Sevens coach, leading the team to the 2005/06 HSBC Sevens World Series title – the first occasion since the series’ inception in 2000 that the circuit was won by a team other than New Zealand.

In fifteen-a-side, Serevi played 39 times for Fiji in a career that ran from 1989 to 2003, scoring a total of 376 points. In 2002 Serevi topped 1,000 points all-time in Hong Kong.

He returned to lead Fiji to victory once again in Hong Kong at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2005, cementing his position in history by finishing as the Rugby World Cup Sevens’ all-time leading points scorer and goal scorer, and the second highest all-time try scorer.

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Waisale Serevi

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – David Campese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNZbzUHbNjI

Australia’s David Campese is the fifth member of ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’, as the HKRFU recognise the seven most formative players to have played in the past 40 Years of Sevens in Hong Kong.

Campo is truly one of a kind. The player who trademarked the goosestep was not as successful at sevens as he was at fifteen-a-side – 101 appearances for Australia and a then-record 64 international tries – but his contribution to the game of sevens and the Hong Kong Sevens was huge.

In 1983, Campese made the first of a dozen appearances in Hong Kong (1983-90, 93-94, 97-98). The Wallabies star lit up the tournament, helping Australia defend its title from the previous year in some of the wettest conditions ever recorded in Hong Kong in March. He would go on to capture two more Cups, in 1985 and 1988 – the last occasion Australia took the top silverware. Campo was as influential in his final match as he was in his first. He won the Leslie Williams Award for player of the tournament in 1988 and ten years later still had pace aplenty to run in tries for Australia.

Campese would bridge generations of powerful Wallaby sides in Hong Kong, from the Mark and Glen Ella, John Maxwell and Simon Poidevin sides of the 1980s to playing alongside Michael Lynagh, Jason Little, Tim Horan and George Gregan in the 1990s.

Campese said on several occasions that he had played his last match for Australia at Sevens but he was convinced to come out of semi-retirement to lead an inexperienced Wallabies team to the

Commonwealth Games in Malaysia in 1998. He proved an inspiration and the old head guided the young guns to a bronze medal, a fitting finale to a great sevens career spanning more than a decade.

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – David Campese

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Eric Rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHkKV0m-1l0

New Zealand sevens specialist Eric Rush is the fourth member of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union all-time international team, ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’.

In a glittering sevens career, Rush, alongside Fiji’s Waisale Serevi, was the face of the Hong Kong Sevens throughout the 1990s, playing in Hong Kong on an amazing 16 occasions and claiming the Cup on nearly one-third of those outings. His five tournament wins in Hong Kong include a purple patch of three straight Hong Kong Sevens titles from 1994 to 1996 as well as victories in 1989 and 2000.

He won the Leslie Williams Award for the Best & Fairest Player of the Hong Kong Sevens in 1991.

Overshadowing his nine test caps for the All Blacks and participation in nearly 30 matches with New Zealand, Eric Rush’s reputation as a rugby great is built on his career as one of the world’s foremost practitioners of modern sevens. Rush played in nearly 60 international sevens tournaments, and helped New Zealand win gold at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002 and at the 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens.

With pace to burn, superb conditioning and unique pitch vision arising from his fifteen-aside experience as both a flanker and a wing, Rush brought an exceptional level of leadership to the New Zealand Sevens teams as a captain, helping to maintain New Zealand’s commitment to excellence through several generations of players.

Rush also distinguished himself as a member of the New Zealand Maori sides, playing in the 1988 tour of France and Argentina and in a total of 14 matches to 1991. After his move to the wing in 1992, Rush represented the New Zealand Maori on another 14 occasions including a fixture against the British & Irish Lions in 1993.

A qualified lawyer, Rush’s natural wit, intelligence and bright personality has seen him in high demand as an after-dinner speaker and in rugby circles he is nearly as well regarded for his role officiating the Hong Kong Sevens Long Lunch as for his exploits on the pitch at the Hong Kong Stadium.

Rush’s sevens fame has seen him acclaimed as an international star and over many seasons Rush has been invited to play for the British Barbarians in high profile festival games in the United Kingdom.

Rush will go down as one of the seminal players in sevens rugby.

 

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Eric Rush

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Christian Cullen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti0rbUGDZPU

One of the most dangerous attacking fullbacks in modern rugby history, New Zealand’s Christian Cullen, has been named as the third player in the ‘The Hong Kong Magnificent Seven’ – Hong Kong Rugby Football Union’s (HKRFU) top seven international players to have taken the pitch at the hallowed Hong Kong Stadium in So Kon Po over the past four decades.

Widely acknowledged as one of the most dangerous fullbacks of the modern era, Cullen burst onto the international scene after his appearance in Hong Kong in 1995. After playing only one match in the previous year’s tournament, Cullen replaced the injured Adrian Cashmore in 1996.

He grasped the opportunity with both hands, scoring an astonishing 18 tries over the weekend and claiming the 1996 Leslie Williams Award for the Best & Fairest player.

“It’s a great honour to be included in the list of the greatest players to appear at the Hong Kong Sevens in the past 40 years – so many fantastic rugby players have played here, and for many like myself it was the start of an international career.

“The 1996 tournament will always hold special memories for me, an epic Cup Final against Fiji and of course winning the Leslie Williams Trophy. I always love coming back to Hong Kong, and I am looking forward to joining the celebrations at the end of March,” said Cullen from New Zealand.

Cullen’s Hong Kong exploits led to his All Blacks debut later in the same year – aged 20 – and reinforced his sevens sobriquet as the Paekakariki Express. He went on to score a hat-trick in his test debut against Samoa and collected four tries against Scotland in his second test. The first steps in a glittering career that would see him become New Zealand’s most capped fullback and scorer of a then record 46 test tries for his country.

Returning to the Sevens fold in 1998, Cullen played a pivotal role in helping New Zealand win the gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Cullen is the first player selected that predates the inception of World Rugby’s (formerly the IRB) Sevens World Series in 2000.

Christian Cullen

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Ben Gollings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvGG1Y0ZiXw

England sevens star Ben Gollings is the second member of the the HKRFU’s Magnificent 7.

The all-time leading points scorer in the HSBC Sevens World Series, Gollings’ record stands alone. An astonishing 276 of those points came from just eight appearances at the Hong Kong Sevens, earning Gollings the record as the leading points scorer in Hong Kong since the inception of the World Series in 2000.

Gollings’ Hong Kong haul came from 20 tries (tied-fifth all time in Hong Kong since the series began) and 88 conversions. He leads his next closest rival on the Hong Kong scoring table, Portugal’s Pedro Leal (224), by 52 points and outpaces third-placed Zhang (211) by 65 on Hong Kong’s leaderboard.

Gollings played on three of England’s four cup winning sides in 2002, 2004 and 2006 (England also won in 2003), and featured at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2005. He returned to his favourite stomping ground from 2008 to 2011 and is still a regular and popular visitor to the Sevens each year.

Ben Gollings

Magnificent 7 @ The Sevens – Johnny Zhang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzNNrgjtQRo

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Sevens, the HKRFU have selected the best of the best a Magnificent 7… The first inductee into this singular sevens roll of honour is China’s Mr Rugby, Zhang Zhiqiang, who holds the all-time record for tries scored (25) in Hong Kong since the inception of the HSBC Sevens World Series in 2000. Zhang added 43 conversions for a total of 211 points in a glittering career at the Hong Kong Stadium.

Known in Hong Kong as ‘Johnny Zhang’, Zhang played at the Sevens on ten occasions and coached China in Hong Kong on another five. He also led China to their only silverware at the Hong Kong Sevens when they won the Bowl in 2006.

Appearing as a special guest of the HKRFU at the Official Draw for the 2015 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens on 16 February Zhang said, “To be named in the Magnificent 7 of the Hong Kong Sevens is the greatest rugby honour in my life.”

China’s Mr Rugby, Zhang Zhiqiang

Rugby Spirit @ Isola – 4 March, 2015

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/Rugby-Spirit-Isola/47833843_nrqS94#!i=3911675895&k=9bvLWzn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOROJxRdKfk

As the 40th HK Sevens draws closer, the HKRugby Football Union unveiled Rugby Spirit – 40 years of the Sevens – told in lights on the side of the ICC from 20-29 March, 2015. The 2-minute show will be play twice nightly at 7.45pm and 9.00pm, immediately after ICC’s ordinary light show.
Click on any photo to see more images.

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